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Monthly Archives: agosto 2011

JINAN, August 31 (Xinhua) — Australian head coach Tom Sermanni played moderation while his counterpart of the DPR Korean women's soccer team acted mysterious as always here on Wednesday when they both here attending a press conference ahead of the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympic Games, slated on September 1-11.

"This will be a very tough tournament. Every team could be difficult," said Sermanni. "(Comparing to the World Cup where Japan won the title) this tournament is more difficult. Five games in ten days. It's a very tight schedule. And my team is better against the western teams and not good at dealing with these technically difficult teams of Asia."

Six teams are here vying over ten days for just two tickets to the London Games next year. While Australia play DPR Korea, the newly crowned World Cup winners Japan will encounter the sole qualifiers Thailand before the hosts China take upstarts South Korea on Thursday evening.

Sermanni's side beat the DPR Koreans in last year's Asian Cup final on penalties after the duo tied 0-0 after extra time, but the coach said they didn't get boosted from that game.

"I don't think the Australians get advantage. We just won on penalties and they performed very well then," he said.

Even the suspension on five DPR Korean players can't make Sermanni any easier, just like his Korean counterpart did.

"In preparation for this tournament, we have a whole new team since a lot of players can't play here. We have a very young team and very short preparation for this tournament," said Shen Yiqin (sorry, only got the man's name in Chinese) who just took over the charge of the national team after last July's World Cup.

The coach, however, said the suspension of their five players, who were banned to be out for 18 months after failing a drug test, won't affect too much to the team's performance. And he gave no explanation.

Tokyo: Asian champions Japan have suffered a double injury blow with Keisuke Honda and Kengo Nakamura ruled out of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against DPR Korea and Uzbekistan, the Japan Football Association said Wednesday.

CSKA Moscow star Honda missed training on Tuesday after hurting his right knee in a league match against Spartak Moscow on Sunday while Kawasaki Frontale midfielder Nakamura misses out after breaking a toe, the JFA said.

Honda, 25, played a star role for the Blue Samurai in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, scoring against Cameroon and Denmark in the group stages and picking up man-of-the-match awards in both games.

Nakamura, 30, had been called up for the first time since October last year, with national coach Alberto Zaccheroni saying the midfielder deserved a place in the squad after making a return to form in the J-League.

The JFA has not yet decided on replacements for the injured men.

Japan will play DPR Korea at the Saitama stadium on Friday and then Uzbekistan away on September 6 in the third Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The North Korea national soccer team has been allowed entry into Japan for the first time in six years in order to play a preliminary World Cup qualifying game.

Permission was granted after the Japan Football Association requested that the government make an exception to rules put in place in response to North Korea’s failure to resolve the abductions issue and ongoing development of missiles, under which North Korean nationals are not ordinarily allowed to enter the country.

Accordingly, the squad of 33 arrived at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo via Beijing yesterday, where they were met by some 300 Korean-Japanese supporters.

The North Korean soccer authorities have forbidden the Japanese media from interacting with the squad in five different ways, including by following them, announcing the location of their accommodation, entering their training location or attempting to make contact with the players.

For their part, the Japanese authorities have moved to forestall any clashes between the two by forbidding the North Koreans from going beyond the perimeters of their accommodation, training ground and the match stadium.

The match between the two sides is due to take place in Saitama on September 2nd.

FIFA Disciplinary Committee decisions for Germany 2011

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee, following its meeting held today (25 August 2011) at the Home of FIFA in Zurich, took the following decisions regarding the cases related to the adverse analytical findings in the anti-doping tests conducted during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011™:

• Five players from DPR Korea have been guilty of violating art. 5 of the FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations and suspended from participating in any competition or match, including domestic, international, friendly and official matches, or other football-related activity or from receiving sport-related financial support as from the respective dates of the provisional measures imposed. Pok Sim Jong, Myong Hui Hong, Un Byol Ho, Un Hyang Ri have been declared ineligible for 18 months and Jong Sun Song for 14 months.

• The doctor from the DPR Korea Football Association, Ms Jong Ae Nam, has been found guilty of violating art. 12 of the FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations and suspended from participating in any match, including domestic, international, friendly and official matches, or other football-related activity or from receiving sport-related financial support for a period of six years as from communication of the decision.

• The DPR Korea Football Association has been ordered to pay a fine of USD 400,000, which exactly corresponds to the prize money the association would have received for their 13th place in the final ranking of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™. Furthermore, the DPR Korea Football Association’s women’s A representative team has been excluded from participating in the next FIFA Women’s World Cup (Canada 2015), including any preliminary competitions related thereto.

• The player Yineth Varon from Colombia has been found guilty of violating art. 5 of the FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations and suspended from participating in any competition or match, including domestic, international, friendly and official matches, or other football-related activity or from receiving sport-related financial support for a period of two years.

For more information on the FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations, click on the link to the right.